Tank birthday, 47+ years

[Scubabeth]

That is because you are not a snowflake. My Daughter is pretty handy but my Son n law don't know which end of a screw driver to hammer in a nail with.

I figured out the video.

That is such a neat and unusual fountain! I love it!

 

[Paul B]

Thank you, I built it about 5 years ago and it has been running in my goldfish pond. I am going to miss building those types of things because the condo we are moving to doesn't give me a yard to put stuff in.

 

[Paul B]

I still love looking at my tank after all those years mostly because, well first of all there are no Supermodels here right now and I went to church and breakfast with my beautiful wife this morning so I looked at her for a couple of hours. Now I am looking at my tank. I love the way it is now because it is filled with the combination of fish that I find the most intriguing.
My copperband is a little larger than I would like but it is what it is. My Bangai Cardinal is way past his supposed lifespan and I have been saying for many months that he should pass away soon from old age, but he is still hanging in there. This week he stopped eating (again) but he has done that 3 or 4 times in the last 6 months so I am not sure what he is thinking but I am sure he "misses" the "Misses" who died last year, also past her life span.
I love the bluestripe pipefish. They go off ontheir own to hunt but always find each other and spend time curling around each other, a perfect pair.
My Fire clowns are like an old married couple. Fighting then mating. This has been going on for decades and they never tire of each other.

My other two pipefish, a dragon face and a Janss pipefish are always on the move. The dragon face slowly inching his way along the rocks intently starring at every grain of gravel looking for a pod and the Janss who is like a Javelin cutting through the water searching for new born brine shrimp that escaped from the feeder. At that feeder is normally the two mandarins who stay there long after they ate the last brine shrimp in the hope there is one left. Eventually they get the hint and go out looking for more productive haunts but they always circle back for a quick look at the feeder.

The other cool IMO fish are a possum wrasse that rarely comes out along with a tiny red perchlet. Those two fish really colored up on their diet of worms, new born brine shrimp and clams. They are so much brighter than they were when I got them.

Of course there are quite a few wrasses, bleenies, anthias and gobies that I also find facinating but I forget their exact names so I rarely mention them.

I love this type of tank as I always find something that comes out of hiding that I forgot I had. I forget a lot. Why did I start this? OK I remember.
I do not like tangs and angels except for a hippo tang that I have always had up to a couple of years ago. They are one of the most beautiful fish but not as interesting as some of the fish I mentioned and much more common. You see tangs in every tank and if you dive, you see thousands of them as they are one of the most common fish in the sea. I just got tired of them.

Who could resist this face!

 

[atoll]

I agree Paul interesting fish over colour and size but I do mix them and many fish that have both of course. As an example damsels are cheap and cheerful some would say aggressive but that is not true of all and even those that are less inclided to be if kept in groups. My pair of 6 lined wrasses my male only ever chances the female and the female just leads him on neither bother any other fish in the tank. I do have a few single fish some for colour like my Regal angel and multibar angel other to do a job like my Foxface I put in there to rid the tank of an invasive low growing Caulerpa. I have a scribbled blenny who is a bit shy but like all blennies is a real character. I have a single yellow gobby I say single as it shares a home with its best mate a pistol shrimp, fascinating to watch them both with the shrimp working away doing the housework while the gobby keeps a watch out.

 

[Paul B]

I was just thinking of old times.
I remember once I was stationed in Colorado and in Colorado they have a lot of space. I rented, or borrowed a nice Manly motorcycle and headed out in the mountains to see if I could pick up any girls. After all I thought who I was with my hair and all.

So I see these two girls in a convertible so I head out in the plains after them with all my "coolness".

They finally stopped for a light and I very smoothly pulled up beside them to put my moves on them. I came to a stop, put my foot down, and my bell bottom pants got stuck on the starter pedal and I fell down right in the street next to these girls.

I stayed on the pavement until they left. That was fifty years ago. I am sure those two girls just stopped laughing last Tuesday.

 

[Paul B]

This little Cardinal is so pregnant she doesn't know which way to go.

 

[Paul B]

I bleached my worm tank because the worms kept turning into Jello. Maybe after so many years they get some weird bug that affects them in a way so they can't sing or do anything so they croak. I don't now. But after bleaching and filling the tank with scurvy goldfish pond water the worms seem fine. You can tell healthy worms because they stay in a clump with their heads (or tails) straight up and not laying all over the place like homeless worms. If you put your ear very close to the tank, you can hear them sing. One or two sound exactly like Pavarotti.

I have been thinking very hard as to how I am going to move this tank and it is not going to be easy. I went to the new house today which is under construction and I need to add heat to that room as well as water, electric and a sewer. Those things are not a problem but this will be in the winter and fish and corals frown on getting chopped out of ice especially in the dark. I am not sure I can keep them warm and lighted until I add those things.

 

[Chasmodes]

Cool fountain. I had to watch the video several times. I thought I saw muddy mudskipper climbing the fountain, but no. Glad your back is feeling a little better.

 

[Paul B]

I knew I should have put mud skippers in there. They are one of my favorite fish because they have eyes like an old girlfriend of mine.

 

[Paul B]

I took a video,not a very good video, but a video none the less. The Jans pipefish was shy but you can just about make him out at the 50 second mark.

 

[dbraun15]

I've always enjoyed your posts about fish and life...just curious as I know you have cared for more animals than just about anybody...have you ever been into keeping anemones? Been following your thread here and other places, but never have I heard any mention of them. Good luck with the upcoming move!

 

[Paul B]

dbraun, thank you for posting. Many years ago, before we had corals we all kept anemones and I had tanks full of them. I even lost a copperband to a curlecue anemone. Pink tip anemones were a mainstay of the hobbyand my tank was full of them. I don't have any now. Once a huge carpet anemone died in my tank and almost crashed the tank. I guess I got tired of them. I used to feed them clams or earthworms.

 

[Paul B]

I remember once with my last boat (I just remembered this story and posted it on my immunity thread but I am waiting for my wife to get up so read it again) I had to do some work on my propeller and I didn't want to get into my scurvy marina water and I had my street clothes on. The boat had a sloping back and it was an I/O (inboard/outboard). I tied a rope around my feet and the other end around the steering wheel so I could reach the prop without sliding into the water. My spot in the marina was right in front of the marina bar where there were probably 100 people drinking, dancing and many of them were most likely looking at me thinking I was trying to hang myself.

I get my wrench and inch myself over the back of the boat, Inch by inch I can finally reach the prop. I pull on the wrench,,,, and the rope slips off the steering wheel and I go head first into the water, clothes and all. I stayed under the water as long as I could figuring the people on the dock are all hysterical laughing and I wanted to give them time to stop. I couldn't really swim under the dock and come up someplace else because my feet were tied together and I can't swim real good like that as I am not a manatee.

I imagined I started to turn blue so I had to pull myself up. The water wasn't too deep so I could put my feet down into the ooze at the bottom where they sunk in up to my knees.
I climbed up, not looking at the marina bar and I casually walked over to the hose so I could wash off the black mud because I am sure I looked like the Monster from the Black Lagoon.
Then I looked at the bar like I had that planned and I really wanted to go for a swim with my clothes on.

 

[tcarter1936]

I remember once with my last boat (I just remembered this story and posted it on my immunity thread but I am waiting for my wife to get up so read it again) I had to do some work on my propeller and I didn't want to get into my scurvy marina water and I had my street clothes on. The boat had a sloping back and it was an I/O (inboard/outboard). I tied a rope around my feet and the other end around the steering wheel so I could reach the prop without sliding into the water. My spot in the marina was right in front of the marina bar where there were probably 100 people drinking, dancing and many of them were most likely looking at me thinking I was trying to hang myself.

I get my wrench and inch myself over the back of the boat, Inch by inch I can finally reach the prop. I pull on the wrench,,,, and the rope slips off the steering wheel and I go head first into the water, clothes and all. I stayed under the water as long as I could figuring the people on the dock are all hysterical laughing and I wanted to give them time to stop. I couldn't really swim under the dock and come up someplace else because my feet were tied together and I can't swim real good like that as I am not a manatee.

I imagined I started to turn blue so I had to pull myself up. The water wasn't too deep so I could put my feet down into the ooze at the bottom where they sunk in up to my knees.
I climbed up, not looking at the marina bar and I casually walked over to the hose so I could wash off the black mud because I am sure I looked like the Monster from the Black Lagoon.
Then I looked at the bar like I had that planned and I really wanted to go for a swim with my clothes on.

Too funny, I used to have that job when I was younger since my grandparents owned a marina. The worst muck bottom ever. Usually pulling crab traps off of the rudder of the rental boats. Then on day I was cleaning a bottom on a 42 ft sailboat when my grandpa walks up and asked what I was doing. I said doing what I was told. Then he says I may want to get out and take the boat outside the marina where the river bottom was Sandy and not so close to the 7 ft alligator that was one slip over lol.
I found out that day that you can walk on water if your terrified enough.[emoji33]

 

[Paul B]

No Alligators in my marina, just crabs and lobsters.

 

[TbyZ]

Hi Paul; I'm after some advice.

I entertained the supermodel who lives next door to me last night with a seafood dinner at my place. I harvested some live oysters off the rocks, but she doesn't eat oysters.

So I put the oysters in my cryptic refugium, thinking that they'll be great at filtering my aquarium water ?

I like oysters, but the super model doesn't. Should I ever invite her back over again?

 

[Paul B]

Definitely not! Although Supermodels normally do not eat oysters or anything else that is not made entirely out of water or air, she should at least make an attempt to smell the oyster or smash it with her high heel.

 

[TbyZ]

Definitely not! Although Supermodels normally do not eat oysters or anything else that is not made entirely out of water or air, she should at least make an attempt to smell the oyster or smash it with her high heel.

She also got upset that I put the oysters in my cryptic refugium, because she said its cruel. I said the oysters will love it there, filtering my water, making themselves useful, like make-up makes a super model useful.

 

[Chasmodes]

She also got upset that I put the oysters in my cryptic refugium, because she said its cruel.

I'd bet if she asked the oyster, it would tell her that the fuge is better than a dinner plate...

 

[Reef Able]

In a couple of weeks my reef will will have reached 40 years old.
Unfortunately I don't remember when I was 40 but I remember when I set it up. I was a skinny 22 year old just back from Viet Nam.
It is still running very well, still using the same reverse UG filter, same dolomite substrait but none of the fish are original. The oldest one, a fireclown is just over 16, all of the older fish died in an accident that was due to my carelessness.
The tank is mostly LPS, gorgonians, giant mushrooms and a few leathers.
There are only three SPS corals, two of which have been with me for a few years and are growing nicely.
I am not sure is any of the original NSW from the Long Island Sound is still in there or any of the original amphipods but maybe much later generations.
I still can't take a decent picture and the tank is not as blue as these pictures but it is what it is.

Wow Respect..This is gold to be honest...to see such an old and existing reef. Thanks for sharing with us. Your tank is amazing...